No, I have not gotten a job writing headlines for the Enquirer, but that is all I could think of when I read this AP article which reports terror suspect Osman Hussain is insisting the bomb he planted was only meant to scare and not to hurt anyone. Apparently, Mr. Hussain wants us to believe he can see into the future and knew exactly where all pedestrians would be in the Shepherd’s Bush Subway Station when his explosives were set to go off. It will be interesting to find out just how large a bomb he thought would not hurt anybody. Academically, anyway.
MEANWHILE: Of course, we are told by Hussain and his sociopathic cronies that their actions are simply a reaction to the War in Iraq. But Arthur Chrenkoff asks an interesting question:
We are told that London bombings are a result of Tony Blair’s decision to participate in the illegal invasion of Iraq. We are told that the continuing occupation of Iraq, and the carnage and humiliation inflicted upon Iraqi people by the United States, Great Britain and other occupying powers have radicalized some British Muslims to such extent as to push them into becoming suicide bombers on the buses and subways of their adopted country (in some cases their country of birth).
There are 250,000 Iraqis living in Great Britain - that’s quarter of a million people, one of the biggest communities in Iraqi diaspora, and just under one sixth of the total British Muslim population of some 1.6 million.
So why, among the original 7/7 bombers, the next lot of recently captured bombers, and all the other people arrested in connection with the attacks, aren’t there any British Iraqis?
Beats me, Arthur. Maybe all those Iraqis are pacifists.
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30 Comments
1. Lem:In not so dissimilar fashion as Arthur, Hitchens probes the intellectual bankruptcy that passes for polemical currency these days.
“All through the years 2003 and 2004 one used to hear it: “So, you think your Iraqi friends are about to adopt Jeffersonian democracy. . .” (pause for hilarious nudge, sneer, snigger or wink). After a bit too much of this at one debate in downtown New York, I managed to buy some time, and even get a laugh, by riposting that Iraqi democracy probably wouldn’t be all that “Jeffersonian,” since none of my Iraqi comrades owned any slaves. But I was conscious, here, of trading partly in the stupid currency of my opponents. (I would now phrase matters a little more assertively: The United States has yet to elect a black or Jewish president, while the Iraqi Parliament chose a Kurd as its first democratically selected head of state, and did so even while the heaped corpses of his once-despised minority were still being exhumed from mass graves.)”
http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110006950
There..
Jul 30, 2005 - 6:12 pm 2. PeterUK:That is the devilish cunning of it all,multiculturalism only peceives a monolithic Muslim community,just wouldn’t do to start getting nationalistic about it.
That this gives a hostage to fortune in that it permits any miffed muslim anywhere the right to start blowing us up,if say a Latvian looks sideways at an Islamic Australian whilst holidaying in Rio,a Somali living in Belgium can immolate people in Spain.
I think this,if I have it right, is the standpoint of the left and the other nutcases.
Meanwhile here is a message from George Galloway’s sponsor.
http://www.ericlee.me.uk/archive/000126.html
Jul 30, 2005 - 6:33 pm 3. Rick Ballard:Any bets on how long it will be before CAIR whips up a new fatwa with fewer weasel words? The unholy men of Islam better get on the stick if they wish to stay in the West. The Italian legislature is studying a security proposal that is being slowed in passage only by the desire of some legislators to add more draconian restrictions, the French are purging hate spewing imams and the Blair is looking for a closet where Cherie can be put for the duration. Musharraf is booting foreigners studying in the Paki hate shops and the US is going to put al-Arian away for a good long spell.
Chrenkoff makes an excellent point about the Iraqi expats in the UK. The wannabe splodeydope isn’t reflecting Iraqi sentiment - unless you want to count Mucky’s pro Iranian crowd.
The London bombings seem to have triggered a new type of response in the West. CAIR’s apologists need to do some serious thinking because if any of those clowns wind up before a jury and draw a none whacked judge, it will be a long time before they breathe free air. Twenty-two years won’t get them even half way.
Jul 30, 2005 - 6:39 pm 4. asher:Lem (that wouldn’t be Stanislaw, would it?), great quote from Hitch.
Roger, Chrenk hits it exactly. Why don’t these leftist dips***s [sorry, I meant to say dipsticks] ever wonder where the Iraqis are on these anti-war, anti-America protests? Apparently Iraqis aren’t real people to them, just an abstraction onto which their adolescent fantasies are projected.
Jul 30, 2005 - 6:45 pm 5. RBMN:Apparently, the Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorists (coming into Iraq from Syria, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc.) are indeed upset about the “occupation” of Iraq–upset about Iraq-born purple-finger pro-democracy Iraqis “occupying” Iraq. Since that’s who they’re blowing up with car bombs these days. Seems, it’s the occupation of Iraq, by Iraqis, that makes ‘em mad.
Jul 30, 2005 - 8:05 pm 6. Lem:Oh no, I wish
I did enjoy Polaris despite the low box-office appeal.
The theme of Polaris (immortality) was visited with a much smaller budget film called Primer. I recommend it.
Oh, BTW - do we remember the human shields before the intervention in Iraq?
Were’s the suicide bomber human shield? Missing in Morocco, Spain, Bali, Africa (so many countries blowing up there is handy to refer to them as a continent) and London.
We need to rally these people from the vacation they are holed up in - I mean all this colateral damage on the papers every day from the suicide bombers.
Human Shields Awaken!
Jul 30, 2005 - 8:07 pm 7. dougf:Beats me, Arthur. Maybe all those Iraqis are pacifists.–Roger
At the risk of disclosing too much information, this type of comment is why I have gravitated to your blog.
To me the situation is very clear. There is light and there is darkness. I am tired to beyond exhaustion of ‘debating’ the WAR, and defending the decision to confront the Islamists head-on. I once had hopes of the ‘left’ growing up and seeing what was actually happening.
No more.
I know it is supposedly hazardous to one’s ‘growth’ to listen to only one voice, but if you have already listened to the other ‘voices’ and found then wanting, what purpose is served by further abusing yourself ?
What really can one say after all that has occured, but what Roger has said? Maybe all those Iraqis are pacifists !
Jul 30, 2005 - 8:23 pm 8. G.:[rant]
Historical “injustices” (which we can do nothing about) and foreign policy disputes are neither a necessary nor a sufficient condition to explain homocidal delirium. Intense indoctrination in a malignant proto-fascist ideology is required as the catalyst to create that.
Their (the Al-Qaeda/Wahhabist) interpretation of islamist law, and their rejection of individual rights, women’s rights, individual worth, the sanctity of life, tolerance of others, the right of the “infidel” or “the jew” to exist, the right of other types of muslims to exist, etc… that’s the problem.
They may be a little ticked at the west for various historical reasons (which we can’t change anyway), but, more importantly, they see the basic tennets of western society as apostasy! And worse, they feel that any means necessary to fight it is permissible.
Plenty of people/countries/regions are ticked (with some justification) at the west for the things that we had to do during the cold war… but they are not trying to blow us up over it… they are getting on with their lives.
Furthermore, these elements (as well as the Iranian Mullahs) could have lived in peace with us, as distasteful as their values are to us… by just leaving the west alone. Sunis had their sharia law utopia in Afghanistan. The shi’a muslim fundamentalists had their utopia in Iran.
Why didn’t they leave well enough alone? Because the philosophies of these groups are inherently imperialistic, expansionistic, chauvenistic, militaristic and intolerant of other ways of life, which they view as literally unacceptable.
We’re supposed to “understand” this, right? Past a certain point, putting yourself in the shoes of the other guy is just really not helpful… once the islamofascists ideology becomes so warped that we can not really understand it any longer.
Example: the KKK.
You could argue, if you wanted to, from the perspective of KKK members, that white supremacists had been subjected to (in their eyes) historical wrongs in the form of forced integration, racial humiliation, economic deprivation, and violent suppression by other groups in society.
Does this anger drive the actions of white supremacists? Yes, I’m sure that it does… but could this anger really exist in isolation from the warped, proto-fascist viral ideology surrounding it? No. Unless you look at events through that lens, there would be no anger… or certainly no anger strong enough to whip up a homicidal delirium.
Combine that attitude with the absence of any societal insight at all (i.e. “is anything that we are doing actually helping us, our people, our cause?”), or sense of self responsibility (i.e. “do we have any responsibility for the state of our leadership, culture, society, or is everything the fault of the west?”), set in the background of a militant, paternalistic culture, fueled by petro-dollars, and you get islamo-supremacism.
You can try to understand that until you’re blue in the face… but that doesn’t get us any closer to a solution. There’s nothing that we can do about the past except to move on and try to promote democracy, the most adaptive form of goverment for dealing with the difficulties brought up by transition from traditional societal structures to modernity.
Do the Arabs and their leaders bear NO responsibility for the condition of their culture and economic conditions? Is everything the fault of the west? What if they had accepted the 1947 UN partition? Not launched the 1967 war in an attempt to destroy Israel (remember that there are only about 6 million Israelis- 1 million of which are arab israeli citizens- surrounded by over 100 million arabs)? Or come to the peace table with Sadat in the 70s? Or if Arafat had at least offered a counter proposal to the 2000 Camp David offer instead of launching waves of homocidal death cult maniacs into Israel? Where would they be now?
Where is the arab peace movement? Why are there no groups chanting in the street “not in my name”? Where are the arabs calling for interfaith conferences? Where is the arab Ghandi? Or even the arab Mandella?
Tolerance has to be reciprocal in order for it to be a viable philosophy. Unilateral tolerance is not sustainable in the real world, unfortunately.
[/rant]
Jul 30, 2005 - 8:24 pm 9. Lem:Also, como si todo esto fuera poco.
This AP article about the would-be bombers state of mind has the unintended effect of humanizing them. Not good if you are sitting on the A train.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not for censoring.
Iam for good mentoring programs at newspapers and magazines that steer a potential Daniel Pearl away from jaws.
Academically, anyway
Jul 30, 2005 - 8:30 pm 10. Lem:Rove may not pay for blowing Valerie, but the CIA, after 4 years of being unable to smoke out Osama, is likely to double its budget before it finally does.
You see? why can’t the left trot out gulag Durbin and pose legit questions like that?
But no, they choose instead to question the foundation upon witch liberty for time immemorial has rested; the ability of a people to choose for themselves to live free.
Yes Peoria, Sadam was a very bad man, despite the millions made by Michael Moore saying different.
Had it been left to today’s left during Washington, our own revolution (as close as it was) would have been a suicidal affair.
Jul 30, 2005 - 9:12 pm 11. Lem:For the record I’m about as right wing anybody can safely get. But one of the reasons I enjoy Hitchens is the inability of contrarians (to use a word from the title of a book of his) to go after him personally. I also enjoy Hitchens dispassion for idols. (mother theresa and lady D)
But It’s mostly a NEURAL sanguine death match with Hitchens (as opposed to Osama’s wahabist).
In this case, if luxuriously and fantastically given the choice of the color RED under some presumed (Hitchens was in the socialist camp when that conflict was relevant) as opposed to what Osama wants?….
It was illuminating to watch a very intelligent man in Tony Blair contort when challenged to explain why these set of terrorist pose a much bigger threat that the IRA or (expanding) why ETA is no match to Alcaida.
When we have to explain to our own side what seemed perfectly clear after Pearl Harbor, one wonders.
Jul 30, 2005 - 9:47 pm 12. Kevin P:Roger:
i am reading the Radosh’s “Red Star Over Hollywood.” As I read the hollywood communists’s lame explanations to their liberal comrades as to why the popular Front’s Anti-fascist policy was suddenly changed after Stalin’s non-agression pact I see the same rhetorical whiplash and make it up as you go logic that comes out of the anti-war crowd these days.
Just as the anti-fascists(who became anti-war in 1939) communists began to try to rationalize why America should stay out of the war because there was no difference between fascist Germany and fascist Britain(per their commintern marching orders) today’s left tries to rationalize the behaviour of the terrorists by giving them the excuse of the Iraq war. “Oh, the invasion made it worse” They ignore that they have been performing these acts long before we entered Iraq and they will continue when we leave.
This is the attitude that would allow the Guardian to hire a rabidly anti-semetic advocate of suicide bombing(whose insipid atricle my L.A. Times reprinted) “journalist in training” and then attack the blogger who did their backround check for them. Even when they get caught with their pants down they blame the “right wing” for their terrorist enabling writers.They fire the hack and then counter attack the man who did them the favour. No good deed goes unpunished
Kevin Peters
Jul 30, 2005 - 10:29 pm 13. Fresh Air:This business of the Iraq war “causing” suicide bombers to blow themselves up is complete B.S., and classic ipso hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
What’s more, so what if it did set these nutcases off? Are we supposed to contact all the nutcases in the world before we exercise our right of self-defense?
“Excuse me. Ali? I’m from the United States. As you may have heard, the president is planning to invade Iraq and he wants to know what your opinion would be. Now, I know you are from Somalia and all, but since our records show that you own a suicide bomb belt, the U.S. government is really interested in hearing your thoughts–ÔøΩthat is, of course, if you aren’t too busy sawing off heads this afternoon.”
Die Infidel! Allahu Akhbar!
“Shall I put you down for a ‘No’ then?”
Jul 31, 2005 - 12:06 am 14. Dulce:At the risk of oversimplifying what is surely a very complex, overdetermined issue (as the Left would have it–poverty, imperialism, Bush=Hitler, lack of empathy with the Muslim world view blah blah blah), seems to me that what’s behind the British bombings, as with all the other acts of Islamicist terrorism, is the same old, same old: Jew hatred.
Doesn’t take much analysis to find the “root cause” of sh*t throughout much of modern history.
Jul 31, 2005 - 7:00 am 15. Terrye:Aswat’s father said he left home a decade ago to fight jihad. So in other words we have family members of one of the men involved saying that this particular muslim was thinking about doing something like this years before 9/11 or Iraq.
Of course today I heard that Jimmy Carter is in England saying that the war in Iraq is unjust and that Gitmo should be shut down. Too bad he can not be as supportive or at least as quiet about Bush’s policies as he is those of Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro.
I think that the Democratic party has been in a down hill slide for years and Carter is one of the big reasons. Going to a foreign country and trashing the commander in chief in time of war. disgraceful.
Needless to say Jimmy and his buddies will be happy to hear that the Iraqis have ask for an extension to write their constitution. It took the US four years to get an energy bill through but they think the Kurds and Sunni and Shia are supposed to come together overnight.
To be truthful I have seen less gridlock in Baghdad than I have seen in DC.
Jul 31, 2005 - 7:39 am 16. Rick Ballard:Dulce,
Jew hating/baiting has been the sport of kings, tsar and other types of dictators for a very long time but I can’t honestly say that it is a cause for evil. Lust for obtaining and holding power would seem a bit more closer to the root. I’ve never seen any convincing evidence of a change in basic human nature occuring since man’s emergence from the forest. Some types of governance are more effective in restraining leaders power lust than others and the dictators of the ME (and elsewhere) know it. Just as they know that transference and projection are very powerful tools for manipulating the masses in the hope of maintaing power.
Dr. Sanity has a very good piece up on some pyschological aspects of the ME situation pertaining to this.
While I agree with others that Iraqis need to spend their blood to insure that democracy is established I would hope that the US keeps the promise the President made in his second inaugural to stand beside them in their struggle. I believe that some consideration must be given to the fact that two full generations of Iraqis have lived under the despots heel. The Butcher ruled for twice as long in Iraq as Hitler did in Germany and he was even more merciless than Adolph to his opponents.
Jul 31, 2005 - 7:50 am 17. RBMN:All young men have a “revolution” gene–for good or ill. The only question is how it gets expressed. That’s why young men need supervision from sane adults–hopefully a father among them. If we’re lucky, we get the revolution of a Wozniak and a Jobs, with some microprocessor chips in their garage. But that’s not “luck.” That’s the way America used to channel revolution, regularly. The Osama’s of the world certainly understand how to channel it, how to shape and fire the clay of these young men’s minds. But the West, as a whole, has largely forgotten where these “formed” men come from, in ANY form. Thankfully, the US military hasn’t quite forgotten.
Jul 31, 2005 - 8:19 am 18. Jamie Irons:Fresh Air
I couldn’t agree more.
But don’t you mean post hoc ergo propter hoc?
Rick
No, I would say it is an excuse for evil.
Still more to the point, it is evil.
Jamie Irons
Jul 31, 2005 - 8:36 am 19. Rick Ballard:Jamie,
Standing alone, of course it is evil. The limitations of my language skills prevent me from providing an adequate description of how despicably evil it truly is. In the case at hand - root cause - it is a slimy mask to hide another and perhaps greater evil. The vile class constituted by the ruling thugs, secular or spiritual, in the ME have learned to use it more effectively than Hitler dreamed of. An evil tool in hands of evil men. Each and every one of them deserves his own bullet. We must continue to encourage its early delivery.
BTW - I hope everyone is supporting Michael Yon financially to some extent. Remember, truth is an effective weapon system - and he provides it.
Jul 31, 2005 - 9:03 am 20. Jamie Irons:Rick
Thanks for that comment. I absolutely agree.
I have been supporting Michael Yon in what I hope is a significant way.
Also, he alerted us to a need for up-to-date medical textbooks in Iraq, which I have also given to (new edition of Harrison’s, whose editor Eugene Braunwald was my attending in medical school, and others…)
Jamie Irons
Jul 31, 2005 - 9:44 am 21. Fresh Air:Jamie–
Yep, post hoc it is. Too tired to type, apparently. Preview is not my friend, sleep is.
Jul 31, 2005 - 9:54 am 22. Rick Ballard:FA,
Katherine and I have that bastard, Preeview, pinned down in a cave in Waziristan. We’re trying to arrange for the use of a Predator to take care of him, once and for all. Send $20 to Wretchard in order to help out. I can’t explain why just now but it will all become clear soon.
Jul 31, 2005 - 11:41 am 23. PeterUK:Rick,
This is cyberwar http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1715166,00.html,sorry we seem to have a glitch in prevow.
Jul 31, 2005 - 12:42 pm 24. Caroline:“Homicidal Maniac Claims to Be Psychic”
For a few seconds there I assumed you were referring to the prophet of Islam. I thought it was earth-shaking breaking news from the ME or something. No such luck I guess. Sigh….
Jul 31, 2005 - 1:26 pm 25. Fresh Air:Rick—
The sawbuck is on its way to Wretchard via Waziristan. Should I send it in Australian dollars or just air freight a couple of goats?
Jul 31, 2005 - 1:50 pm 26. Rick Ballard:Peter,
He even screwed up your link. It is indeed cyberwar - that Priveew scum was tracked to a cave adjacent to OBL. There are rumors that OBL may have him hit before we can strike. Something about alienation of affection concerning Mabel. Hard to figure, the only Mabel that shows up on intelligence reports is a nanny. I thought OBL’s children were all grown?
Jul 31, 2005 - 1:56 pm 27. PeterUK:Rick,
I think the reference may be to the fabled Tower of Mabel.Which explains a lot.
Jul 31, 2005 - 4:25 pm 28. Rick Ballard:FA,
Yankee $. The damn Kyrgi’s we’re dealing with won’t take anything else. Well, young boys or diamonds, but we’d prefer to work in dollars.
Peter,
I’m not sure about that - the IR used the possessive “his nanny, Mabel” and something about “prettiest in the herd”, really difficult to make it out. Of course, my Urdu could sure stand a refresher.
Jul 31, 2005 - 5:02 pm 29. PeterUK:Rick,
Did he mention the eyes being like limpid dark pools in the moonlit oasis, caressed by the gentle desert night breeze?
If he did, he’s been at the sherbet again,a bugger for the bottle is OBL when he gets the call of the wild.
Jul 31, 2005 - 5:21 pm 30. Pat:Shortly before the invasion of Kuwait, my wife inspected a rental flat in the Bayswater neighborhood of London. A very pleasant gentleman (whose father owned the building) took us through the unit, and we signed on as tenants. Over the course of her initial conversation, she learned that the gentleman was an Iraqi. She had never met an Iraqi before, so she asked rather naively “What do you think of Saddam Hussein?” The gentleman eyes darted around, almost as if he expected to be jumped, and then said “are you bugged?” She said no, she was just interested in how Iraqis viewed their head of state. He said he did not want to answer, as his mother and other family were still there.
It’s not quite like having the number tattooed on your arm but its close. Talking of which, we moved from London to Melbourne, and bought into a high rise condo. One of the owners was a Polish Jew who had become a wealthy developer. He had the tattoo, and had been used as a slave laborer by the Nazis. He was forced to work in building construction. If workers fell to their deaths the Nazis could care less. In the closing weeks of the war he, along with hundreds of slave laborers, was put on a ship in the Baltic Sea. It was torpedoed by a British submarine and he was one of the few to survive.
Thoe who know terror don’t become terrorists.
Jul 31, 2005 - 9:54 pm